There are 24 hours in a day and the majority of our day-to-day lives are spent at work. In business and even in life, it is important how mindful you spend your time.
Have you ever stopped and reflected on how you spend your time? How much of your time is dedicated to doing things that are meaningful? How much of your time is spent in endless scrolling through social media? Time is a valuable asset that cannot be regained. It is good practice to track how effectively we use it.
This applies to businesses as well. As a business owner, you should have put in place an effective process to track your employees. Do you have information on how much work is being produced in a specific amount of time? Knowing this information is vital to productivity and a healthy workflow. Regardless of your role as a CEO, VP, or intern, keeping track of your time and tasks is important.
Why Is Time Tracking Important in a Workplace Environment
- Transparency on Work Hours
Time tracking can promote transparency within organizations. Recording the hours worked allows managers clear visibility of time spent on various tasks by the employees.
Additionally, it helps foster a culture of openness to each member of the team. A detailed view of how time is used helps identify workflow inefficiencies. Areas for improvement can be identified and addressed. It can also enhance collaboration in the team as members can understand each other’s availability and workload.
- Employee Accountability
A study states that a 7% increase in profit was seen when employees were monitored during their work hours. Employees are more inclined to follow schedules when they are watched. It creates a sense of responsibility and management over their time. Employees also become more conscious about their productivity and avoid wasting time.
- Visibility on Operations
Understanding how employees spend their time can be the source of data-driven decisions. It helps identify potential bottlenecks in tasks that are the source of delays. It can also help to visibly see if someone has enough workload. Diving deep into your employee’s hours can get you first-hand information on how your operations are going and what you can do to improve them.
Sometimes it’s the little things that make the most impact. If you notice that a simple task is taking hours to complete, then you can flag that. Identify areas for improvement and determine the next course of action.
- Payroll Accuracy
Accurately calculating wages is important as it can make or break how much money your business can make during a period of time. You can ensure employees are paid the right amount by recording employee shifts, breaks, and overtime.
Time Tracking Tool – Time Card Calculator
Indeed, the advantages of time tracking are extensive – and rightfully so. Attendance checks have been ingrained in our routines since our early years, starting from kindergarten. As we transition into the professional realm, attendance checks continue to be essential, but they have evolved to a much more sophisticated level.
To simplify this task, a punch clock calculator comes into play. It serves as a valuable tool for accurately monitoring an employee’s work hours. A time card is specifically designed for this purpose, providing a streamlined method of tracking the hours an employee has rendered for work.It helps by:
- Summarizing the total working hours for tasks
- Accurately calculating payroll payment
- Keeping the business in compliance with labor laws
If you started working before the year 2000 – or even way, way back – you have probably encountered traditional employee timecards. These were physical cards – usually paper – where employees wrote down what time they started and ended their shifts. It’s usually logged as weekly time cards or even daily depending on the employer.
Now that we’re glued to technology, we use virtual time cards. There are a lot of options for a free time card calculator online nowadays. The time card calculator can automatically calculate total hours worked, and any overtime hours, and do the computations for any special pay rates based on the data entered. You might never need a physical calculator ever again!
Benefits of Using a Time Card Calculator for Your Business
- Accuracy of Time Logged
Setting up a time card calculator to account for working hours, breaks, and overtime will provide you with precise calculations. They eliminate human errors that are constant mistakes in manual timesheets. By automating the computation of hours, the results are more reliable and consistent.
- Summary of Hours
If you’re still relying on manual time cards for your business, it’s time to stop that ancient activity. Instead of spending hours consolidating the hours your employees worked, you can spend that time doing other productive things – like brainstorming new ideas for your business.
Using a digital time card calculator, employees can easily clock in and out of their shifts without the need to write them down on physical paper.
- Transparency
Clear visibility of recorded hours promotes fairness in the workplace. Punctuality and adherence to schedules can be highlighted and rewarded accordingly. These records can also be used during performance reviews to back you up.
- Analytics and Insights
A lot of time card calculators offer reporting features. There can be valuable insights into productivity, project hours, and task allocation.
It can also help in evaluating time management and its effectiveness. You can identify patterns and gaps in your workflow. Using this data can help you streamline your processes and make improvements.
- Record Keeping
Documentation is important when it comes to employee hours. It can be used for performance evaluation as well. Using a time card calculator, your data is saved somewhere safe from natural calamities like fire and floods. Digital records are also secure, so you don’t have to worry about unauthorized personnel viewing them.
Time Cards for Labor Law Compliance
Rules and regulations in businesses are not for the faint-hearted. A single rule break can be costly and can send your business spiraling down the drain. An employment lawsuit can cost a company a $250,000 legal bill. You don’t want that to happen – not now and not ever!
Labor law is a set of legal rules and regulations that focuses on the rights and responsibilities of workers. It aims to protect workers’ rights, making sure that they are treated fairly. Employers can’t have all the power and labor laws make sure it stays that way.
A huge part of labor law covers an employee’s working hours, overtime, paid time off and break entitlement, and wages. These aspects can be effectively addressed through the use of time cards in your workplace. Using time cards can help you avoid substantial legal expenses.
- Working hours: This is the most essential part of the time card. You can capture an employee’s hours by using a time card calculator. These calculators can even notify or show you when an employee exceeds specific hours. Another benefit is that these records can’t easily be tampered with, unlike manual timesheets that can be thrown away.
- Overtime: There can be a lot of times wherein a business needs to operate a few more extra hours. Time cards can capture these extra hours and you can establish limits to avoid any exploitation concerns that may come up.
- Paid Time Off and Break Entitlement: Time cards can also calculate this break time information. If an employee doesn’t show up, it can be customized to determine whether the employee is on leave or absent. By accurately recording the working hours, you can also calculate how much break time an employee took during their shift.
- Salary: By having a repository of employee time records, it can be easy to calculate their salary. Some time cards can also incorporate the payroll system. It shouldn’t be a problem if an employee brings up miscalculated wages as you have the time cards to back up your computation.
Takeaways
A time card calculator is a wise investment for your business. Not only does it provide countless benefits, but it can also save you the headache in any case of labor law complaints.
Running a business smoothly can be difficult – but leveraging the tools you can find online can make things easier. Automation is key when it comes to upgrading a business. Remember the two most valuable assets of a business: time and employees. Ensure that everyone fulfills their responsibilities and maintains accurate records.
